Property prices increasing in all world regions except Europe

The average residential property prices are rising around the world except Europe, the figures from Knight Frank’s global house price index have shown.The figures showed that the prices in the global housing market increased by 6.6% on an annual basis, the highest growth rate since the second quarter of 2010.The global property prices rose by 2% in the first quarter of 2013, largely due to the strong performance of the Middle East Region, where the property prices rose by 10.6% on average.The largest rise on an annual basis was recorded in Hong Kong, where the prices rose by 28%, higher than they were a year ago. In China the prices increased the most on a quarterly basis, witnessing a rise of 10.7%.The United States recorded a price rise of 10.2%, its highest rate of annual growth in nine years, the international residential research organization evaluated.Overall, Europe was the world’s weakest performing region during the last 12 months, with the mainstream prices falling by 0.3% on average. Greece, Hungary and Netherlands were lowest performers in the continent as the property prices there declined by 11.8%, 9% and 8.3% respectively.The European countries that showed slight improvement in the property market were the United Kingdom and Ireland. In the UK, prices rose by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2013 while Ireland reduced the decline of 16%, it recorded a year earlier, to just 3%.South Africa was the strongest performer in the African continent, with the prices there rising by 11.3% in the first quarter, compared with falls of 3.2% a year ago.